Minister turned amidst various altars, making motion to cross (9)
I believe the answer is:
traversal
'motion to cross' is the definition.
(action of crossing or traversing over)
'minister turned amidst various altars' is the wordplay.
'minister' becomes 'rev' (I've seen this in other clues).
'turned' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'amidst' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'various' indicates an anagram.
'rev' back-to-front is 'ver'.
'altars' with letters rearranged gives 'trasal'.
'ver' placed inside 'trasal' is 'TRAVERSAL'.
'making' is the link.
(Other definitions for traversal that I've seen before include "crossing over bridge" , "Act of crossing" , "Coming across" , "A crossing (of something)" , "A journey across" .)